Page 110 of Hitting the Goal Line
“At least you’re out,” Christian says, clapping me on the shoulder.
A pain radiates down my whole arm when he does that and I can’t help but to wince.
Great. A beat-up face and a hurt shoulder. If I don’t get kicked off the Knights for this, I’m probably not going to be seeing the ice anytime soon anyway.
“Thank fuck for that,” I say, massaging my arm before extending it to him. “Thank you for bailing me out, man. I owe you one, times a fucking million.”
Both Christian and Eliana look at each other before looking back at me with a confused look on each of their faces.
“We didn’t bail you out.” Chris says, sounding as confused as he looks.
“Then how are they letting me go?” I ask, but they both just shake their head, not knowing what to say.
“Blake Jacobi?” A male voice asks from somewhere behind me.
Turning, I see a guy in a suit standing at the edge of the waiting area looking right at me. I guess this the other cop that I was supposed to talk to.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I say, approaching him.
The man holds out a hand for me to shake. “Nice to meet you. I’m Officer King, I’m the lead on your case.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I say, before shaking his hand. “Can you tell me why I was released? Did my lawyer place my bail?” I ask because that seems like the logical explanation.
“No, actually the charges against you were dropped,” he states, giving me a curt nod.
What the hell? I beat the shit out of that bastard. How the hell were my charges dropped?
“Dropped? How? Why?” So many questions dance around my brain. Why would he drop the charges? I for sure thought the asshole would use everything in his arsenal to take everything he can from me. He already took my girl, I wouldn’t have put it past him to take away my hockey career too.
“We were able to talk to someone and they were able to show us that what happened today was self-defense. You were protecting them from harm. And given the evidence that they handed over, the district attorney’s office thought it would bebest to drop the charges against you now instead of waiting for you to stand before a judge.”
My head spins from all the information that gets thrown my way, but the one thing that is at the center of it all is just one small piece.
They were able to talk to someone.
I don’t have to guess who it was.
It was Sophia.
She talked to the cop to protect me, not her bastard of a boyfriend.
I thought that after this morning, she would be cursing me out and hating me for what I did, but instead, she is showing me that she is on my side.
I should have never doubted that she wouldn’t, yet I did.
Fuck.
Her standing beside me isn’t the only thing that has me railing. She handed police evidence, which means that whatever Elijah put her through this morning, has happened before and wasn’t a one-time thing.
I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to think that those scenarios that I thought up after she left our apartment where true, but they are. The fucker was being abusive towards her and I didn’t know.
She didn’t tell me, which I can’t fault her for because she was probably terrified.
Either way, I wasn’t there for her when she probably needed me the most.
When we were five, I promised her that I would protect her, but in these last few months, I broke that promise.
Now my need to see and talk to Sophia is all that more urgent.
